Redheugh, Newcastleton, ELLIOT CLAN SOCIETY …...However, Scott remained a realist when viewing the field of Flodden and the military tactics of James IV – “Never was an affair

“Wha daur meddle wi’ me?”

Clan Room: To avoid disappointment, please warn us if youintend to visit Redheugh. Email or telephone us on the following

UK number: 013873-75213 or [email protected]

1

Dear Kinsmen

There has been a great deal of activity at Redheugh to spruce it upfor all our visitors. A new two bedroom cottage has been created out of one of the old barns, an ancient shed demolished and newgreenhouse and acres of new gravel. Drainage and fencing is beingimproved upon and trees planted. Last year was the wettest onrecord and we are desperately hoping it was a one off! For thoseplanning to visit the Borders for the first time, I have given them afew ideas in this issue about what there is to see in this area. Of course, there is Edinburgh and the Highlands too. No shortage of scenery in Scotland!

In this issue, a story of a family of intrepid and entertaining Elliottsand an address my father gave on the Battle of Flodden in 1979. I have brought it out and dusted it off as it gives a clear resume on the effects of this terrible battle and why 500 years later it is animportant if tragic part of the history of Scotland. Elliots fought anddied in this battle.

The Canadian Elliots have a change of leadership and there is a shortbackground note on the new president, Catherine Elliot-Shaw. Youwill, I am sure, be impressed by her considerable achievements. Sheand her husband, John, are coming to the Gathering and will get us all on the dance floor at the Ceilidh!

Christopher and I are looking forward to our trip to Atlanta inOctober. The Stone Mountain Highland Games is an impressive and well organised event and I was delighted to be asked to be thisyear’s Guest of Honour.

A special plea for help to those who have a special interest orexpertise in genealogy. Our clan society relies on the time andgenerosity of our members. Ken Blaiklock has given us a great deal of his time and energy and I hope there is somebody out there whocan give him some help to carry on his work for the Clan.

See you soon!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Eliott of Redheugh

NOTICES ANDNEWS ITEMS

HELP WANTED – Ken Blaiklock hasbeen a tireless archivist and researcherin Elliot genealogy for quite a numberof years and has built up a considerabledatabase of Elliot kinsmen. Due todifficult family circumstances he needssome assistance with this genealogicalwork and dealing with requests fromour members If you would like to helpplease contact the clan [email protected]

Keith Elliot Hunter has beenresearching in depth the origins of theElliot name and has revealed somefascinating Breton connections asfeatured in the last issue of thenewsletter. He has been appointed theClan Elliot Society historian and will beattending the Gathering with his familyin August 2013.

Sounds of the Borders – A compilationon CD of music and readings fromBorders artistes and writers. Producedfor Borders Talking Newspaper by JoyChatters to celebrate its 1000th editionand 20 years of providing weeklyrecordings of audio extracts from localpapers to the visually impaired in theScottish Borders. £8.99 available fromthe Elliot merchandise list.

Stone Mountain Highland GamesAtlanta, Georgia

The Chief will be Guest of Honour atthis event over the weekend of the 19th and 20th October 2013. Moreinformation will be in The Signal Towerand on the websites but there is anElliot dinner being planned for theevening of Saturday 19th October.

Redheugh, Newcastleton, Roxburghshire TD9 0SB

www.elliotclan.comwww.elliotclanusa.comwww.elliotclanaustralia.orgwww.visitnewcastleton.com

“Here’s to all Elliots and Elliot’ bairnsAnd them that lie in Elliots arms.”

No. 70 – Spring 2013 Chief: Margaret Eliott of Redheugh

ELLIOT CLAN SOCIETY

Newsletter

2

Red Jasper Roman intaglio of Caracalla asAugustus underSeverus, c 207AD.Measures 16x11mm.Found on the site of Trimontium,February 1998.

2013 ELLIOT CLANGATHERING

Red Jasper IntaglioWalter Elliot, Borders historian, found thisRed Jasper Roman intaglio of Caracalla asAugustus under Severus c 207AD on thesite of Trimontium in February 1998.Trimontium was the name of the Three HillsPlace in the lee of the Eildon Hills one milefrom the town of Melrose beside thevillage of Newstead in the Scottish Borders.In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD there grewup an enormous Romano-native complexwhich lasted around 100 years. The Centreis in Melrose. The Museum is open everyday except Sunday and there are GuidedWalks to the site each Tuesday andThursday from the Heritage Centre and teaincluded £3. Adults and children free, dogswelcome. 1.30-5.15pm.www.trimontium.org.uk

We are all very much looking forward to seeing a good turn outfor this year’s gathering. At this point (March) we still have seatsavailable for the Flodden coach trip on Sunday but it is provingpopular so book early to avoid disappointment.

Saturday evening: There may be something organised atHermitage Hall to entertain you but at this stage it is too vague. If it has come to something you will be able to buy tickets at theGathering itself. Hopefully we will be able to inform you morefully through the websites.

Some suggestions: Do make time to visit Hermitage Castlewhich is only 5 miles away from Redheugh as it does featurestrongly in Elliot history and gives you a flavour of the grim 15thCentury.

Hadrians Wall is a World Heritage Site and a great day out. TheGreat Abbeys of Jedburgh, Melrose, Kelso and Dryburgh. Hawickhas The Heritage Hub, Drumlanrig Textile Museum and WiltonHouse Museum as well as some great Cashmere factory shops!Another day trip would be Traquair House, Peebles and DawyckArboretum. Floors Castle at Kelso is lovely with a great garden.

For walking and cycling enthusiasts – there are endless mountainbiking opportunities at Newcastleton and throughout theBorders. For walkers, there are some lovely local walks round thevillage as well as St. Cuthberts’ Way and the Southern UplandWay. Fishing also available at some beats on the River Liddel.

www.visitnewcastleton.com will be able to fill you in on anylocal Liddesdale information.

This memorial stone stands on the site of the Battle of Flodden Field,above Branxton near Cornhill on Tweed. The memorial plaque reads:“To the Brave of Both Nations.”

President of theCanadian Clan ElliotLast November, Catherine Elliot Shawsucceeded Walt Elliot as the new Presidentof the Canadian Region. A member since1992, Catherine has served in severalexecutive positions in the Ontario WestChapter. She is also an avid ScottishCountry Dancer and has taught workshopsacross North America for over twentyyears. Recently, she was awarded TheQueen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for herunofficial ambassadorial role promotingCanada during her travels in the UnitedStates. Catherine holds two degrees fromWestern University of London, Ontario: anHonours BA in Art History and Criticism (for which she won the University GoldMedal) and an MA in Public History. She hasbeen the Curator of the McIntosh Galleryat Western University for over 30 years,responsible during that time for over 350exhibitions and for a permanent collectionof over 3,500 art objects.

3

The Flowers of the ForestOn the 9th September 1513 it is exactly 500 years since thedisastrous Battle of Flodden.This is being commemorated inlots of different ways aroundthe battlefield (Flodden 1513website has information onevents) and in St. GilesCathedral in Edinburgh.There is a expedition headingto the battlefield fromLiddesdale on the Sunday of the Gathering weekend. In 1979 my father,Sir Arthur Eliott of Stobs,gave an address at the annual Commemoration of the Battle and it seems to be appropriate to repeatsome of this address in this500th anniversary year.

Pictured above – Lost flowers ofthe forest: ‘News of Flodden’ byWilliam Brassey Hole (1846-1917)Photo: City of EdinburghMuseums and Art Galleries,Scotland and The Bridgeman ArtLibrary.

Lost flowers of the forest: ‘News of Flodden’

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If we are to believe some historians, there were no more ruffianly lot of thievesand cut-throats than the Border Reivers of the 16th Century. This is taking a rather prim view of our past. Even so, as a descendant of one of the more activeof the Scottish variety – the Elliots of Liddesdale – perhaps I ought to have hadsome misgivings in venturing so far into Northumberland today. Yet I feel verymuch among friends and I regard it as a great privilege to be invited to take partin this Commemoration of Flodden and help keep alive this memorial to thecourage of our turbulent ancestors.

Indeed, I agree wholeheartedly with Sir Walter Scott whose imaginations wasfired by a visit to this pat of Northumberland. He wrote “To add to mysatisfaction we are amidst places renowned by feats of former days; each hill iscrowned with a tower or camp or cairn; and in no situation can you be near more fields of battle – Flodden, Otterburn and Chevy Chase, Ford Castle,Chillingham Castle, Coupland Castle and many another scene of blood are within the compass of a forenoon’s side.

However, Scott remained a realist when viewing the field of Flodden and themilitary tactics of James IV – “Never was an affair more completely bungled thanthat day’s work was”. The battle has since been the subject of much careful studyby historians, but the verdict remains the same. What should have been a victoryfor the Scots was turned into defeat by impatience and over-confidence.

In this fact lies much of the sadness of Flodden. A great and noble army wasthrown away by its commander, King James IV, a gallant Prince but a poor general.Certainly no event in the whole history of Scotland has made a deeper or morelasting impression on the minds of people than the Battle of Flodden.

Jean Elliot’s haunting lines of “The Flowers of the Forest” written 250 years laterexpressed then and express today the feelings and sentiments of generation aftergeneration of Scottish people.

On the fact of it Flodden was just another of those border battles which hadbeen fought in nearly every generation living on the English-Scottish frontier for200 years not to mention many other forays and encounters so what distinguishesFlodden from other pitched battles between the Scots and the English. ➤

4

The Battle of Flodden1513

King James IV

Flodden was a disaster and the disaster lay in the loss of so many of the leadersof the nation and of its best and bravest sons. The government of the countrywas virtually wiped out, leaving old men and infants as heads of state. In myown district of Liddesdale the death of the Earl of Bothwell left all in confusion,justice courts abandoned and the borders generally fallen into what wasdescribed as “in great ruyne and out of all good order.” There was scarcely asingle family in the land that did not mourn the death of one of its number. It issaid that, of the eighty men who marched out from Selkirk, only one returned.Some 10,000 men, more than a quarter of the army, were left dead on the field.Considering that the whole population of Scotland was no larger than Edinburghtoday, the size of the catastrophe can be better understood. In addition, thecrucial importance of the King in the semi-feudal hierarchy of the times – hewas indeed the lynch-pin of mediaeval society-and the effects of his death onthe battlefield become clear. James IV was perhaps the most able and certainlythe most popular of all the nine Stuart Kings who ruled in Britain, the growingprosperity and dawning Renaissance in Scotland was brought to an abrupt haltand nation thrown back into its old mediaeval anarchy for almost another100 years.

Historians have been inclined to underrate the importance of Flodden, perhapsbecause its effects were largely indirect. The power and independence of theborder clans or surnames, the raiding and reiving which is today so much a partof our heritage, trace their beginnings to this battle and to the anarchy andmisgovernment that followed it. If, added to the disorder and confusion, youconsider the confidence which this victory gave to Henry VIII in his plans toreduce Scotland to a vassal state and make himself its master, the subsequenthistory of the borders becomes clearer.

The historian Andrew Lang observed, “No defeat bore less of dishonor, no battlelost by chivalrous folly was ever so well redeemed by desperate valour.”

The Earl of Surrey / The 2ndDuke of Norfolk

Pictured right – The Battle of Flodden:Henry Courtney Selous (1803-90) 1846.Electrotype of wood engraving by C. Gray. 6.5 X 5 inches. Source: Poems and Pictures, 71.Image scan and text by Simon Cooke.With acknowledgement to The Victorian Web website.

5

Tom also became an acrobat on his bicycle, riding on the front wheel and turningpirouettes, a feat that was the inspiration for James’ invention of the unicycle. Withthis new invention Tom learned to ride on the table while it was being rotated in theopposite direction. Tom, and his brother Jim, then both boys and a sister and finallyall four – Kate, Polly, Tom and Jim were simultaneously circling on the rotating table.

The difficulty of the Elliot kids’ stunts progressed over time of which the trickiestsegment of their performance was the Revolving Wheel of Fire. In the early years ofthe act, the youth and bravery of the performers added to their appeal. Jamesdescribed an incident during their performance for the King of Sweden and Norway:

“The idea of performing before a real live king set the hearts of the little onesbeating high with curiosity. Little Polly, straining her little eyes to catch a glimpse ofthis august family forgot herself for one moment. Turning her head away from thedirection of her bicycle, she collided with Kate, a spill being the result, the latterfalling from the stage. King Oscar seeing the little girl in this sorry plight, rose andlifted little Kate from her ignominious position. Quieting her little fears andcaressing her, His Majesty restored the child to her father and at once sent hisphysician to the back of the stage, but to their surprise on his arrival Miss Kate wasonce more pegging away in the continuance of the programme.”

On 12 March 1883, having already secured a contract with the Barnum-Bailey-Hutchinson circus, the family arrived in New York City which became their base forthe next fifteen years. Despite a highly publicized trial brought by the society for thePrevention of Cruelty to Children the judge (who had watched their performance)dismissed the case earning great publicity for the Elliotts and earning them the title“The Only Children Allowed to Perform by Law in America”.

During 1894-1895 they performed in Cuba and by the time they returned to NewYork the family had two new additions; Tom’s new wife, Eloina (an acrobat andtrapeze artist) and their five month old daughter, Violetta.

The Cycling Elliotts returned to England in 1898 and toured widely throughout theBritish Isles. They dissolved their act at some point during the period 1904-1907leading them to concentrate on making revisions to the Elliott Savona act. By 1907they were billed for twice-nightly performances at the Empire Palace Theatre inEdinburgh but now as The Elliot Savonas.

They enjoyed a most successful career, one that gave rise to a showbusiness familytradition that, under such billings as the Elliott Savonas, The Seven Elliotts, Hazel’scandies, and The Musical Elliotts continued to entertain audiences throughout themiddle of the twentieth century.

As The Elliott-Savonas moved theircycling/musical act from town totown, this car owned by JB Elliottwas loaded on a railway flatcarand taken off right before theyreached the next site of theirperformances, pretending they had driven all the way.

James Bedford Elliott (1846-1906) was born inMiddlesborough, Yorkshire, to ablacksmith, Thomas Elliott andhis wife Mary Elliott. He andhis brothers followed in theirfather’s footsteps becomingblacksmiths or vocationsrelated to the trade. Afterserving an engineeringapprenticeship and spending a season with a circus Jamessettled down to building ‘OldBone Shakers’ and became anexpert bicycle trick rider andracer winning money andmedals. At the same timeimproving on cycle design andmanufacture.

James’ eldest son, Tom, took aninterest in the bicycles from theage of three. His father made atiny wood-wheeled bicycle forhim which he was constantlyattached to. As a result hebecame the first boy bicyclechampion, winning first place,three pounds and a gold medalin the first junior bicycle racein Wolverhampton. His littlesister, Kate followed hisexample.

The Elliott Family evolved into a musical bicycling act, playing fifty instrumentsamong them. Later they changed the name of their troupe to The Elliott-Savonas.

THE CYCLING ELLIOTTS

AUSTRALIA

A321 Williams, Mrs Betty, Penneshaw,Kangaroo Island

CANADA

C1100 Westby, Jayde Krisanda, Calgary AB T2J 6W3

C1101 Sherry, Cameron & Winnifred, Howick QC J0S 1G0

C1102 Fawcett, Patricia, Calgary AB T3A 0P8

NEW ZEALAND

N327 Brookes, Lois, Motueka

UNITED KINGDOM

E460 Elliot, Mr Mark & Family, Whitley Bay,Tyne & Wear

E461 Elliott, John Henry, Bedwell, Stevenage, Herts

E462 Sutton, Mr Lynn M., Nanpean, St. Austell,Cornwall

E463 Elliott, Mr. Terry M. Chesterfield, Derbyshire

E464 Elliott, Mr & Mrs. Bryan W., Chippenham,Wiltshire

E465 Bamford, Elizabeth & Danny, New Eltham, London

E466 Foster, Angus J. Elliot, Kensington Park Rd, London

E467 Agnew, Mrs. Doreen, Distington, Cumbria

E468 Thompson, Mrs. Jean., Cockermouth, Cumbria.

S152 Elliot, Samuel S. Bo’ness, West Lothian.

UNITED STATES

US3575 Elliott, Richard, Winnetka IL

US3576 Elliott, Gary, Tulsa, Ok 74133

US3577 Elliott, Dennis E., Royal Oak, MI 48073

US3578 Voss, Jeanne Elliott, Thornton CO 80229

US3579 Folkes, Rebecca Stanton, McDonough GA 30252

US3580 Modisett, Barbara, Chapel Hill, NC 27617

US3581 Elliott, Jeffrey Darrell, Beaverton OR 97007

US3582 Brown, Elizabeth Elliott, Modesto CA 95357

US3583 Regalado, Carol Elliott, Brentwood CA 94513

US3584 Elliott, Dennis, San Jose CA 95120

US3585 Elliott, Britt, Vallejo CA 94590

US3586 Fry, Joel APO, AP 09459

We welcome the following new members to the Society

6

Details of new members received too late for publication will appear in the next newsletter.

US3587 Biddex, Richard & Trina, Felton CA 95018

US3588 Holmes, Dave, Discovery Bay CA 94505

US3589 Steele, Richard Elliott, Berkeley CA 94707

US3590 Hall, Nancy R. Concord CA 04521

US3591 DiLoreto, Daniel & Patti, San Antonio TX 78227

US3592 Elliott, Nancy J., Amherst NH 03031

US3593 Hile, Nate Alea, Stevensville MT 59870

US3594 Lucas, Ralph, Bethlehem NH 03574

US3595 Snyder, Susan Macleod, Tarzana CA 91356

US3596 Ducey, Michael Elliott, Okatie SC 29909

US3597 Elliot, Doug, Houston TX 77094

US3598 Elliott, Robert J. Middleburg Heights OH 44130

US3599 Elliott, Roger C. Redding, CA 96003

US3600 Elliott, Marvin Benjamin, Durham NC 27707

US3601 Seitz, Patricia Elliott, Liverpool NY 13088

US3602 Simmons, Dennis, Dallas GA 30157

US3603 Elliott, Jason J. North Reading MA 01864

US3604 Kjos, Robin, Tacoma WA 98409

US3605 Elliott, Herbert & Danna, San Antonio TX 78227

US3606 Callahan, Barbara, Springfield MO 05807

US3607 Slater, Shawn & Tracy, Alexandria VA 22301

US3608 Supnet Jr., Freddie & Tina, San Jose CA 95127

US3609 Ferguson, David E., Southfield, MI 48033

US3610 Elliott, Steven Allen, Wasilla, AK 99687

US3611 Elliott Jr., Thomas R., Bixby OK 74009

US3612 Kiefer, Stephen, Nathaniel & Christopher,Naperville, IL 60563

US3613 Kiefer, Nancy Louise, Madison WI 53705

US3614 Elliott, Christopher, Toronto M6P AH6 CANADA

US3615 Limpose, Cynthia, Sebring FL 33870

US3616 Elliot, Gavin Tudor, Orlando FL 32812

US3617 Elliott, Rick, Kentfield, CA 94904

US3618 Brown, Kathy, Roseburg OR 97470

US3619 Elliott, Jonathon & Evelyn, Lompoc CA 93436

US3620 Smotherman, Clyde & Mildred, Union MO 63084

US3621 Smotherman Sr., Greg & Anita, Cuba MO 65454